NT situation better than most thought?

[clyde_carbon]

With the departure of Aubrayo Franklin many (including myself) thought that the run defense would suffer, but today Isaas Sopoaga looked real stout at the Nose. RJF also showed some nice things with the second team, especially collapsing the pocket and flushing the QB out. Don't forget that we also have Ian Williams in the farm.

Obviously this is just the preseason and what we see today could be completely different than what we see come Week 1, but it looks like the NT situation is much better than what the majority thought it would be at this stage.

On a semi-related note, DeMarcus Dobb is also making plays. I'd like to see more of him earlier in the game.

 

[WestEndVol]

Who won the Niners/Saints game?

 

[WestEndVol]

lol, don't know why I said Saints, I meant Raiders. That's who they played right?

 

[trancemeister]

We won 17-3 though it should have been a wider margin since we dominated most of the game. Two red zone trips came up empty as we chose to run the ball mostly. Hopefully this was just a case of Harbaugh wanting to practice goal line sets and/or not showing his hand as far as the playbook goes.

 

[PWilly52]

Im sure Harbaugh was just keeping it simple. No need to show hand like you said.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

With the departure of Aubrayo Franklin many (including myself) thought that the run defense would suffer, but today Isaas Sopoaga looked real stout at the Nose. RJF also showed some nice things with the second team, especially collapsing the pocket and flushing the QB out. Don't forget that we also have Ian Williams in the farm.

Obviously this is just the preseason and what we see today could be completely different than what we see come Week 1, but it looks like the NT situation is much better than what the majority thought it would be at this stage.

On a semi-related note, DeMarcus Dobb is also making plays. I'd like to see more of him earlier in the game.

I'd agree with all of that. Granted the Raiders don't have a killer OL, but Satele is a decent player. RJF is having another impressive preseason. I'd imagine he'll get more PT this year, and I'm eager to see what he does. For a pretty big guy, he gets good penetration and seems to be able to stay really low to the ground. I'm hesitant to draw any strong conclusions about DL play based on a game against the Raiders (or about the D as a whole given that they don't have the players to exploit our one glaring weakness: CBs), but the D has played pretty well two games in a row.

That said, Bush had a few cut-back runs where the middle of the D had kind of vanished. If McFadden was in there on some of those, he might have broken them. Though those seemed to be problems with the LBs and Ss more than the DL.

 

[SUPREME72]

I know it's only preseason, Harbaugh has this team believing in what there are doing, that will only build confidence and that my friends will take you a long way.

 

[Jikkle]

When Franklin didn't get that mega deal everyone predicted I started to doubt how valuable he really was and it seems the team didn't make a poor choice in not bringing him back.

 

[CalamityX11]

Sopz is playing strong there at NT, perhaps more comfortable than before? But the rotation of him and RJF will be key for us IMO during the season. Not going to say NT is automatic but need to seem them against, no offense, higher tier of OL... the rayyyyders aren't on the top of my list.

On Dobbs... yes, I hope he gets to play more and more and want the guy to make the cut.

 

[RedneckNiner]

From watching the game I think the Niners will be fine with Sop and RJF at Nose. The defense is the least of my worries. Hopefully they can keep us in games until the offense can get up to speed.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Sopz is playing strong there at NT, perhaps more comfortable than before? But the rotation of him and RJF will be key for us IMO during the season. Not going to say NT is automatic but need to seem them against, no offense, higher tier of OL... the rayyyyders aren't on the top of my list.

On Dobbs... yes, I hope he gets to play more and more and want the guy to make the cut.

I was discussing this with Imac on the old board. He mentioned that Sop wasn't very good at NT last time he was there. But Sop wasn't very good period at that point. He seems to have developed a lot since then, and is not just a strong guy at this point.

 

[CalamityX11]

Yeha, Sopz has been with us(league) for a good time, maybe a sense of leadership is coming over him. He feels he can do more right now and that's a plus for us.

The whole DL itself is playing with McDonald and Sopz essentially playing more pivotal roles than before.

 

[threelittleturds]

I thought there would be a drop off. Ice and RJF have done far better than I hoped, and it's awesome. Baalke did a good job of recognizing that these guys could replace Franklin. Saved the team a lot of cap space as the NT/DT market blew up because of Haynesworth's contract.

 

[MW49ers5]

I know it's only preseason, Harbaugh has this team believing in what there are doing, that will only build confidence and that my friends will take you a long way.

I completely agree.

While the Raiders are not to be confused with the Saints and pre-season bares little resemblance to the regular season, the 49ers played with a level of focus, determination and confidence I have not seen in a very long time.

And though still not quite a complete game, this team was nearly unrecognizable from the one which took the field in the super dome a week ago, and that is all on Harbaugh and that is a very good thing!

 

[maniax]

I've been saying from day one that a rotation of Soap, RJF and even at times the newcomer Ian Williams to spell the other two, will replace Franklin just fine.

 

[MW49ers5]

I've been saying from day one that a rotation of Soap, RJF and even at times the newcomer Ian Williams to spell the other two, will replace Franklin just fine.

Walsh used a heavy rotation on the D'Line so I hope you are right. It never hurts to have fresh legs in the 4th quarter.

 

[threelittleturds]

Walsh used a heavy rotation on the D'Line so I hope you are right. It never hurts to have fresh legs in the 4th quarter.

Dom Capers has been using a heavy rotation in Green Bay, and it has certainly been effective at making their D-Line be a big part of their top ranked units the last two years. (I'm not sure if he also did that in Pittsburgh, Carolina, and Houston).

 

[spacedoodoopistol]

I thought Cam Inman made a good point - maybe obvious to some people - on the pregame show yesterday. Talking about how Franklin's departure will affect Willis, he noted that Willis made Franklin look good more than Franklin made Willis look good. Said Franklin seemed to get way too much credit in that relationship.

 

[deep9er]

I've been saying from day one that a rotation of Soap, RJF and even at times the newcomer Ian Williams to spell the other two, will replace Franklin just fine.

don't think they can keep all three of these guys on the roster? unless you're thinking Sop and RJF are also depth at DE's?

 

[CalamityX11]

don't think they can keep all three of these guys on the roster? unless you're thinking Sop and RJF are also depth at DE's?

Ian Williams may be PS however he might get picked up somewhere... not sure if his play in the preseason has warrant much attention.